Bayern confirm meeting with agent of Man Utd transfer target Upamecano

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:45 CDT
• 2 min read

Bayern Munich seem to be leading the race to sign RB Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano after the club confirmed that it had held a meeting with the player’s agents on Thursday afternoon. 

Upamecano’s agents, Sascha Breese and Volker Struth, were both spotted to be driving into Bayern’s offices at Sabener Strasse in Munich on Thursday afternoon and reportedly didn’t leave until three hours later. 

The agency represents Bayern defender Niklas Sule and young midfield talent Adrian Fein, so Breese and Struth’s visit to the Bundesliga club’s offices were far from abnormal. 

However, when asked by Sky Germany about their meeting with the club, Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic confirmed that the meeting had taken place to begin negotiations over the transfer of Upamecano this summer. 

“Of course we are thinking about him,” said Salihamidzic when asked about the recent reports linking the French defender with a move to Munich. “We had a good meeting with his agents yesterday. Let’s see what happens.”

Upamecano joined RB Leipzig in 2017 for little more than £10 million and has come on leaps and bounds since adapting to life in the Bundesliga. 

As such, the defender has been linked with potential moves to Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, due to a release clause in his contract that would allow Upamecano to leave RB Leipzig for around £40 million in the summer. 

Whether the France international will leave RB Leipzig in the summer remains to be seen, but it seems that if some of Europe’s biggest clubs are prepared to pay the sizable fee to sign him then Bayern are already ahead of the chasing pack. 

The German champions are usually quite careful with how they spend their money, but they have spent large sums of money on defenders in recent seasons when they truly believe they can pick up an impressive player. 

In 2019 right-back Benjamin Pavard was signed from Stuttgart for £31 million along with Atletico Madrid left-back Lucas Hernandez from Atletico Madrid for a remarkable fee of £72 million.